Rapist Robinho and Other Winter Moves

[beak]

It's funny, this weekend I was thinking about that case a few (5+) years back where Chelsea and Leeds (?) were in a tussle over some youth player. I don't think it was John Obi Mikel, who I vaguely remember being at the center of some other dispute. I wonder how many of these youth players actually work out: .001%?

Around that time, the agent of Nathan Porritt (aged 15) was on Panorama touting his client to Chelsea. Capped at youth level. Played a few games for Darlington, a few games for Olympic Charleroi. Is now (aged 28) kitman for Hartlepool.

He, at least, looks like he has been living well.

[JM Footzee]

My apologies to fans of Ipswich, but I am faintly amused by their dealings with Janoi Donacien. They loaned him from Accrington, he played 11 times (10 starts, including two games where he was subbed at half-time, and one 89th minute sub appearance) but didn't make a single appearance after Paul Hurst was sacked in late October. They then contractually had to sign him permanently for 750k at the beginning of the January transfer window and have today loaned him back to Accrington for the rest of the season.

[RobW]

Very happy with Lincoln's business so far. Cian Bolger signed from Fleetwood on 2 and a half year deal (probably means Bozzy moving back to midfield), James Brown from Millwall signed on loan as cover for Neal Eardley and Danny Rowe returning on loan from Ipswich. I understand that Shay McCartan is staying with us for the season now, and all we need is a striker to replace Matt Green.

[Eggchaser]

Arnautovic seemingly on his way to China to win medals.

https://youtu.be/vWRlxSGf_ns

[Kevin S]

Norwich have signed 18 year old Irish/French midfielder William Hondermarck from second tier Irish side Drogheda. Assuming he plays in the U23s for a bit, he'll be linking up with young Irish forward Adam Idah.

https://www.balls.ie/football/norwic...ermarck-404836

Hopefully we'll do well by those two boys in [yellow and] green.

[Kevin S]

Ooh, even better, sounds like he'll be playing for us in the FA Youth Cup at Preston tonight.
norw.ch/WHondermarck

[elguapo4]

Haven't seen him because there's very little coverage of the first division in the Irish media but he seems to be well thought of, hopefully he can push on and we cap him before the French know he exists.

[RobW]

Scott Wharton returns to Blackburn from us, and then is immediately loaned out to our rivals Bury. Very good centre back, and I thought he'd be our first choice this season until we signed Jason Shackell. He should have a bright future ahead of him, hopefully not immediately though.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Higuain apparently about to sign for Chelsea on loan, as Krzysztof Piatek fills his place at Milan and Alvaro Morata is gently packed up and sent over to AM.

[RobW]

Jordan Roberts signs on loan from Ipswich for the Imps. Nice that we're getting all the players that Lambert doesn't fancy. Another attacking midfielder, no doubt i've seen him play against us for Aldershot and Crawley, but we seem to have an abundance of attack minded midfielders/wingers now (Andrade, Pett, Anderson, McCartan, Rowe).

[anton pulisov]

Frenkie de Jong will leave Ajax in the summer. Barca have paid 75 million euros, with potential to increase to 86 million.

Decent young prospect of a midfielder, but 75 million, nah.

Ajax must be rolling in cash. Davinson Sanchez was sold for 40 million only recently. And the club pays Eredivisie wages.

[Diable Rouge]

Norwich have signed 18 year old Irish/French midfielder William Hondermarck from second tier Irish side Drogheda. Assuming he plays in the U23s for a bit, he'll be linking up with young Irish forward Adam Idah.

https://www.balls.ie/football/norwic...ermarck-404836

Hopefully we'll do well by those two boys in [yellow and] green.

Hadn't heard of Hondermarck, but Idah has certainly been prolific in underage internationals.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Higuain apparently about to sign for Chelsea on loan, as Krzysztof Piatek fills his place at Milan and Alvaro Morata is gently packed up and sent over to AM.

Signs and take the No. 9 shirt, which Morata symbolically gave up so he could take the number 29 instead and mark the date of his twins' birth instead of indicating his job of a striker in a football team:

[caja-dglh]

Nine would have been good for a target number of goals each season as well.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Actually, Morata has scored nine goals for us this season and got 15 last, so he's not an absolute dud. Just a substantial one.

[jwdd27]

I'd rank Morata as better than Sutton, Kezman, Shevchenko and Falcao. Worse than Eto'o, Torres and Crespo. A mid-ranking dud.

Higuain at 31 is a real risk IMO. Even at his best he would either score with every touch or else struggle to hit bovine posterior with stringed instrument. And when he's in that mood you notice his physique is not quite that of an elite athlete. Could be a rough ride.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I'm not sure that I'd call Sheva or any of the others listed after him duds, certainly not Eto'o or Crespo, though one or two certainly performed below expectations, which I suppose is how we'll remember Morata in the future. He's no Robert Fleck!

But yes, indeed. Looking at photos of him from, relatively speaking, not that long ago, he's hardly recognisable, and not just because of the beard and, er, high forehead. But let's see what he's got. I think most Chelsea fans just want to see a striker who wants to get in positions to score goals, converts a reasonable percentage of the chances created and actually celebrates them afterwards.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

morata scored a goal every three games. That's basically what he's done all his career. There was a time when that was considered quite good going. On the one hand I don't know what Chelsea fans were expecting, then again you're always kind of hoping that he's going to get his eye in and start banging them in.

[Nocturnal Submission]

He was as soft as shit and would fall over at the slightest whiff of a challenge, a whingebag who picked up virtually every single one of his yellow cards for dissent, rather than putting in an overly-robust challenge (chance would be a fine thing) and someone who looked as though he would rather be taking lovey-dovey selfies with the missus, which is indeed what he spent the bulk of his time doing. Born offside too. I don't think I've disliked one of our players so much.

One of the best headers of the ball I've ever seen though. I would have told him to stay in the centre of the pitch, try to stay onside and then encouraged our wide players to aim at his bonce and hope for the best.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Oh all of that seems fair enough, but doesn't that just makes him the new morientes? Isn't that kind of the problem for Spanish strikers who seem to be an "english style" centre forward and are relatively big and strong. They turn up in england, and their size isn't really and advantage, and suddenly all the other sides of their game are er, exposed.

i watched the 1991 ECWC final there recently, and I'm kind of reminded of Julio Salinas in that game. If you look at a youtube video of him you can see him score huge numbers of goals, with plenty of thumping headers, because he's relatively big and strong for the spanish league. But against Bruce and Pallister, he was completely lost, not because they were the greatest defenders ever, but because they simply played against centre forwards as big and awkward as him every week.

[EIM]

not because they were the greatest defenders ever,

yeah they were

[3 Colours Red]

morata scored a goal every three games. That's basically what he's done all his career. There was a time when that was considered quite good going.

Problem is that the inhuman performances of Messi and Ronaldo (and to a lesser extent, the likes of Suarez, Kane, Lewandowski, Salah, Aubameyang, Aguero etc.) have skewed the idea of how prolific a forward should be.
But yeah, I'd go with NS's assertion that Morata has perhaps the most negative body language of any striker I've ever seen. Looks like he'll soon be Atletico's problem though - if Simeone can't get him looking in the slightest bit interested in what he's doing, I don't know who can.

[ooh aah]

I don't know about that, are Kane, Aguero, Lewandowski et al really more prolific than the likes of Shearer, Henry, Van Nistelrooy or Fat Ronaldo? They all consistently scored better than Morata's fairly average 1 in 3

[3 Colours Red]

I was only mentioning current players; like I said, the perceived metrics are different now due to two of the greatest players ever to pull on a shirt.

Henry, Shearer etc. stood out by averaging significantly better than a goal every two games at a high level. For the last decade, that ratio is almost made to look average.

Well, there's that and the fact that the bunch I mentioned at least look interested most of the time.

[Nocturnal Submission]

"Morata is potentially a very good player," Sarri said. "He has the characteristics for playing in my team, but one month ago he said he wanted to play for another team.

"It was very difficult for him to give us 100 per cent because of his mental situation. He is very suitable for my football, but the situation has changed in the last month, so we needed to change."

Grrrrrrrrrr!